According to a report posted by the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., fire or rescue officials spotted the waterspout (which is the same as a tornado but over water) at 5:55 p.m. It was moving west across the Patuxent toward Maryland Route 231's Benedict Bridge.

Frohlich's shot is a view of the waterspout from a pier in Golden Beach, on the Charles County side of the Patuxent just south of the bridge.

Waterspouts aren't unprecedented in Maryland, of course, given the state's many waterways and its relatively high density of tornadoes. Here is an account of one that passed near Edgewood in 2009.